1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical devices and/or systems. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to hand-held surgical devices and/or systems configured for use with removable disposable loading units and/or single use loading units for clamping, cutting and/or stapling tissue.
2. Background of Related Art
A number of surgical device manufacturers have developed product lines with proprietary drive systems for operating and/or manipulating the surgical device. In many instances the surgical devices include a handle assembly, which is reusable, and disposable loading units and/or single use loading units or the like that are selectively connected to the handle assembly prior to use and then disconnected from the handle assembly following use in order to be disposed of or in some instances sterilized for re-use.
In intelligent surgical devices, intelligent disposable loading units and/or single use loading units include an identification element which communicates with a reader element disposed within an intelligent powered handle assembly. In this manner, when the intelligent disposable loading units and/or single use loading units are connected to the intelligent handle assembly, the reader element of the intelligent handle assembly communicates with the identification element of the intelligent disposable loading units and/or single use loading units to thereby indicate to the intelligent handle assembly which particular loading unit is attached thereto. Once the particular loading unit, attached to the handle assembly is identified, operative parameters for the powered handle assembly may be set in accordance with predetermined values.
A need exists for a system that is able to detect particular parameters (e.g., length of a staple cartridge, indication that a staple cartridge has been fired) of non-intelligent (i.e., not including an identification member) disposable loading units and/or single use loading units when such non-intelligent disposable loading units and/or single use loading units are connected to intelligent handle assemblies.